Notes

1] "These verses were written extempore, immediately after reading a notice of the Ettrick Shepherd's death in the Newcastle paper, to the Editor of which I sent a copy for publication." Hogg died on November 21, 1835. He was a shepherd, sheep-farmer, and minor poet whose considerable reputation was enhanced by the fact that he was an "uneducated" writer. Wordsworth refers to six of his literary friends or acquaintances who had died within the previous three years: Hogg, Scott, Coleridge, Lamb, Crabbe, and Felicia Hemans.1-4. On September 2, 1814; on an earlier tour of the Border region, in 1803, Wordsworth had decided not to "turn aside to Yarrow" (Yarrow Unvisited). Back to Line

3] Ettrick: river and parish of Selkirkshire. The Ettrick, joined by the Yarrow, flows into the Tweed. Back to Line

5] On September 20, 1831, just before Scott's departure for Italy (see note to the previous poem). Back to Line

9] Scott died in September 1832, and was buried amid the "mouldering ruins" of Melrose Abbey. Back to Line

19] the frolic and the gentle: adjectives chosen as true of Lamb and a lamb. Back to Line

20] lonely hearth. Mary Lamb, who was her brother's housekeeper, suffered recurring spells of insanity and confinement in an asylum. Back to Line

30] Wordsworth mentioned in a note on this poem that he had frequently met Crabbe at the home of a common friend who lived at Hampstead, and he referred to "our rambles together on Hampstead Heath." Back to Line

35] Crabbe had lived to be seventy-eight; Felicia Hemans died at forty-two. Back to Line

41] Wordsworth had in mind, particularly, the story of the ballad entitled The Braes of Yarrow. It is glanced at, presumably, at line 11. Back to Line